Chapter 16 — After Menopause, I Found Out I Was Pregnant

It's also my weakest point. He knows. He knew everything from beginning to end. I opened my eyes, staring at him. Every word.

“Chu Chi Minh…”

“You are truly the meanest person I have ever met.”

He laughed. A smile full of joy is sure of victory.

“It's the same.”

“I give you three days to think.”

“Think carefully and call my lawyer.”

Having finished speaking, he let go of my wrist, adjusted his wrinkled suit, then turned and walked away. It looked as if the winner was him. I looked at his back, my whole body felt cold. For the first time I understood... It turns out that hating someone can actually cause the blood in the body to freeze. I lie on the hospital bed. Chu Chi Minh's fierce face and his cruel words kept repeating in my head. Threaten me. Yet he used our own son to threaten me. He thought he could just squeeze my most tender rib to make me bow my head. He thought that for my son's future, I would continue to be patient, swallowing all the blood and tears. He's wrong. Completely wrong. When a mother is pushed to the limit... The weakest rib will turn into the toughest armor. I don't fight alone. I also have a son. He is no longer a child who needs me to protect him from behind. It has matured. It has the ability to distinguish right from wrong. From beginning to end, the reason I excluded it from this dirty war... is because I wanted to keep it a clean area in my world. But now... It was Chu Chi Minh who personally pulled the fighting fire in front of my son. Then I can't continue to treat him as a child anymore. I must give him the right to know everything. We must also give them the right to choose whose side they are on. I picked up the phone. My palms are a little sweaty from stress. I don't call my son. I sent him a really long text message. I told everything. One story at a time. Use the calmest and most objective tone. Since my body had problems, I went to the hospital for a checkup. Until his father immediately put the traitor hat on my head from the beginning. Then I was diagnosed with cancer... But he foolishly chose to use lies to cover it up. Then there is a woman named Manh Dao and her soon-to-be-born child. Two years of deception and betrayal by his father. I took the full text of the threatening words that Chu Chi Minh had just said in the hospital room regarding his future... I wrote them down without missing a single word. I don't add salt and fish sauce. I also don't use any emotional words. I'm just stating a fact. The cruel truth is that his family... was completely torn apart. At the end of the message, I wrote:

“Tieu Khai, I'm not telling you all of this to make you hate anyone.”

“But because you are an adult, you have the right to know everything that happens in the family.”

"Your father is using your future as a weapon to force me to give up the rights that belong to me."

"I will not back down because of that threat, because that is the last bit of dignity I keep for you and for myself."

“But I also respect your choice.”

“No matter what you decide, I will support it.”

“You will always be my most beloved child.”

After sending After that text message, I felt like all my strength was drained from me. I put the phone aside and closed my eyes. I don't know how my son will react after reading it. Will it be shocking? Will it be painful? Or will he blame me for destroying the image of a great father in his heart? I have absolutely no clue. Perhaps this is the biggest gamble of my life. What I bet on... Is the friendship and trust between my mother and me over the past twenty years. Time passes minute by second. Every second feels like a century. My heart hung suspended, suffocatingly uneasy. I don't know how much time has passed... The phone finally rang. Not a message. It's the call. It was my son calling. I took a deep breath and pressed listen. The voice on the other end of the phone was hoarse and heavy like never before. I could clearly hear him trying his best to suppress his emotions.

“I read the message.”

My heart immediately jumped into my throat.

“Tieu Khai…”

It interrupted my words.

“Mom, you don't need to say anything else.”

“Now I'm going to the airport.”

“Mom sent me the hospital address.”

“Wait for me to come home.”

His words were concise, decisive, without any hesitation. I even heard in that voice the extremely suppressed anger of a grown man. Tears immediately welled up in my eyes at that moment. I won. My son... He's really grown up. It didn't disappoint me.